Sun 8.7 The Selkie Boy

TINA DAVIDSON (b. 1952)

Tina Davidson a highly regarded American composer, creates music that stands out for its emotional depth and lyrical dignity.  She has been acclaimed for her authentic voice, her “vivid ear for harmony and colors” (New York Times) and her works of “transfigured beauty” (OperaNews).  She writes “real music, with structure, mood, novelty and harmonic sophistication – with haunting melodies that grow out of complex, repetitive rhythms” (Philadelphia Inquirer) that is both “intellectually rigorous and deeply moving” (Star-Tribune). Davidson was born in Stockholm, Sweden and was raised in Oneonta, New York and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At Bennington College she studied with Henry Brant, Louis Calabro, Vivian Fine and Lionel Nowak. She founded the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Composers Forum and served as its director from 1999-2001. When she was president of the New Music Alliance, she organized a nation-wide festival entitled New Music Across America, which ran in 18 cities in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Long-term residencies play a major role in Ms Davidson’s career. As composer-in-residence with the Fleisher Art Memorial (1998-2001), she was commissioned to write for the Cassatt Quartet, Voces Novae et Antiquae, and members of the Philadelphia Orchestra. She also created the city-wide Young Composers program to teach inner city children how to write music through instrument building, improvisation, and graphic notation. She was composer-in-residence as part of the innovative Meet The Composer New Residencies with OperaDelaware, the Newark Symphony and the YWCA in Delaware (1994-97). During this residency, she wrote the critically acclaimed full-length opera, Billy and Zelda. The recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, Davidson was the first classical composer to receive a $50,000 Pew Fellowship. Her work, Transparent Victims was selected by the American Public Radio as part of the International Rostrum of Composers, held at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris. . She has written numerous works written especially for children, including The Selkie Boy, which was commissioned by the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies underwritten by the Minnesota Composers Forum with funds provided by the Jerome Foundation. It will receive its west coast premiere on August 7 at the Cabrillo Festival’s 2011 Free Family Concert.

www.tinadavidson.com